Lower Back Pain Info

What Are The Causes Of Back Pain

There are a number of different causes of back pain. Whilst most are related to age and degeneration of the back and spine there can also be other reasons for back pain.

Poor Posture

Mobility naturally keeps us and our entire musculoskeletal system in good shape. Modern living, however, involves a lot of stationary activity, often sitting in a chair. Whilst it is possible to exercise good posture while sitting, most people do not do this.

Bad Lifting Technique

Over 90% of people demonstrate poor lifting technique. A person should bend at the knees and look ahead when lifting, keeping the object as close to the centre of their body as possible (think of an Olympic weightlifter's technique).

Instead most people keep their legs mostly straight and bend their back. Even without an extra weight this is stressing the back with the weight of the entire upper body.

Each time lifting is done incorrectly it introduces an extremely small but cumulative amount of damage to the back. This is not likely to cause immediate problems but is almost guaranteed to cause long term problems.

Obesity

More and more people are overweight these days. The body was designed to withstand an optimum amount of body weight. Any more than this places extra stress on the entire musculoskeletal system including the back but also including overloaded joints such as the knees.

Slipped Disc

A disc can become herniated and the spongy insides can then bulge out, putting pressure on nearby nerves. Often this causes back pain but this can also sometimes manifest itself as sciatica where pain is felt in the legs.

Injury

This can be as minor as a muscle sprain. In fact, many back problems are first (mis)diagnosed as simple muscle sprains. Some people experience repeated muscle sprains over a period of years – this is likely to be due to an introduced muscle imbalance that will not disappear without physiotherapy.

Testicular Cancer

This is a relatively rare cause of back pain. If the cancer spreads to the abdominal area and the tumours grow to a large size then they can cause severe back pain.

Collapsed Vertebrae

These can become damaged due to either disease (osteoporosis) or injury (e.g. a large fall). This is also known as a compression fracture of the spine. They tend to heal by themselves within around ten weeks.

Stress

Some people experience back pain only during periods of high stress or anxiety.

Cauda Equina Syndrome

This is the compression of a particular group of nerves that gives symptoms of not just lower back pain but also leg pain as well as bladder/bowel dysfunction and motor and sensory loss from the lower extremities.

This list of possible causes of back pain is not exhaustive.